He leaned close, his breath fanning across my cheek before his mouth hovered above my ear. “See you tonight, Joey,” he murmured, each word prickling flesh.
If he kissed me, I was done for. There’d be no stopping the colossal mistake ready to break free like a boulder down a hill.
He pulled back, heartbeats away for the first time in eleven years, a scraggly beard hiding a face I knew was too handsome for his own good. Waves of hot mint teased me as he studied my face, lips parted ever so slightly.
“Look pretty for me, baby.”
“I have to go,” I muttered, closing my eyes, refusing to fall into that trap again. I couldn’t. I had so much more to lose than I had at nineteen. A son. A business. My sanity.
He pulled away, the room suddenly cooler than before, my skin peppered with thousands of goosebumps. “We open at five.”
I turned and pulled the door open, desperately needing air.
As soon as the sunlight poured in, I felt eyes on me, and sure enough, Liv stood on my porch across the way, staring with her mouth agape, no doubt thanks to the mostly-naked man behind me.
Luke Eleven Years Earlier
“Luke, slow down!”
Josie fumed in the passenger seat with her knees against her chest. She was griping up a storm about my driving, as usual, her eyes glued to the speedometer and widening at each mile per hour over.
“Alright, Nosy Josie,” I teased, slowing. I was going five over, but I’d drag along at fifty if it made her happy.
“Sorry, I want to get there in one piece!” she huffed, linking her arms over her knees, her blonde hair blowing in the breeze.
Usually, spring in Maine offered nothing but overcast skies and rain. But a rare sunny day made a trip to Briley Canyon a must.
“We’ll get there,” I promised.
We’d get there even if we had to walk. It was the most important day of our lives yet.
There was no better place to unwind on a day off than Briley Canyon, soaring Balsam fir trees shielding visitors from life’s stresses. It was home to breathtaking waterfalls, one of which I had scoped out for the final stop of the day.
“There’s a cop,” she noted, eyes glued to the side mirror.
I glanced at the rearview, spying the Briar patrol car behind us. “I’m going the speed limit.”
She remained rigid, eyes not leaving the mirror. “He’s speeding up.”
I sighed, wishing she’d relax for once. It was a day for celebration, not worry. “It’s fine.”
Despite my words, the lights overhead whirled to life when the sedan was a few feet from my bumper, a hundred yards shy of us being free of the Briar town limits.
“Oh, what the fuck?” I flipped on my turn signal, slowing to pull to the side of the road, the patrol car on my ass the whole way.
I reached under my seat, pulling my registration and insurance card from the pouch I stored beneath. My glove box was destroyed a few months earlier when some asshole broke into my car. I’d tried to find another in salvage yards, but so far I was having shit luck finding anything.
“I told you!” Josie’s eyes welled with frustrated tears.
It wasn’t how the day was supposed to go. Not at all.
I expected happy tears, but no others.
We sat in silence, waiting for the officer to approach, but he didn’t leave his car until another cruiser pulled behind his a few minutes later.
Okay, seriously? What the hell? What was with all the fuss for going five miles over the limit?
“License and registration, please,” the officer asked as he appeared at my window, his thin mustache revealing him as Jared Reed, everyone’s least favorite deputy. He’d pulled me over in the past for dumb shit, always throwing his weight around to feel high and mighty.
I handed him the documents out the window without hesitation, ready to hit the road again. “Is there a problem, Officer Reed?”
He scoffed, flipping through the cards. “Yeah, there’s a problem.”
“What kind, sir?” I’d never been pulled over for doing anything less than ten over the limit, and that was in town, not on the outskirts. There were rarely patrol cars on the long stretches north of town.
“You were driving like a crazy man back there. You on anything, son?”
“What? No!”
I might have been going a little fast, but that was it.
He tsked, shaking his head. “You were doing all sorts of swerving. Are you on drugs?”
“No, sir,” I replied, bewildered.
What the hell?
“I’ll need you to step out of the car, boy.” He looked in at Josie. “You too, miss.”
He placed me at the front of the vehicle and Josie at the rear, demanding we both keep our hands on the car while he searched it. The black metal was hot to the touch from the midday sun, but we did as we were told.
Josie had more tears streaming down her face, ripping my heart out at every glance, powerless to make things better. I wanted to comfort her, to calm things down, but I couldn’t.
Steady thuds sounded from the car, Reed likely whacking that stupid baton he had around to scare us, anything for a power trip.
Crack.
Whack.
Thud
Thump.
The sounds fell into a steady rhythm, a dead giveaway he was playing hardass. He was the only guy on the force that ever gave me shit, the rest firm but friendly when we came face to face.
Josie sniffled the whole time, red-faced and tear-streaked, her blonde locks sticking to her cheeks as the wind blew. When all was said and done, I’d kiss those tears away, making it up to her however I could.
After a few minutes, another officer came from the rear patrol car, taking Josie by the arm while Reed continued his search.
“Hey! Where are you taking her?” I called, alarmed. We’d done nothing wrong, especially nothing worthy
